New Labour's wind power drive is just hot air
by Ken Ferguson - 23 July 2009
Prime Minister Brown and his henchman Lord Peter Mandelson have gushed about the virtues of green energy and predicted that they will provide thousands of 'green jobs'.
Yet this government, which has pumped countless billions into baling out the bankers gambling debts, stands arms folded as workers at the Vestas wind energy plants in Southampton and the Isle of Wight face closure and redundancy.
The Vestas workers are currently occupying the factory and have a strong case but the police have immediately taken an agressive line, not allowing food to be brought in and arresting those showing solidarity on the outside.
Vestas has form in this regard as it previously pulled out of a facility in Kintyre which was sold to Danish firm Skykon.
During the first half of 2009, the price of Vestas shares increased by 25 per cent. Over the early years of the 21st century it has increased its work force from just over 2,000 to well over 20,000 now.
However the real story is told by the profit figures.
For the first three months of 2009, profits after tax were 56 million Euros, a rise of 70 per cent over the same period last year, based on a revenue of 1.1 billion Euros, a rise of 58 per cent
It has orders backlog which has risen by 6.7 per cent so there's certainly no reason to reduce productive capacity.
Obviously the workers facing the sack deserve the fullest possible support and solidarity in their fight to maintain the jobs.
However there is an equally important lesson for all concerned with building a socially just and ecologically sustainable society while fighting for jobs.
The Vestas situation is graphic illustration of the impossibility of harnessing market economics to meet the needs for sustainable energy and stable skilled jobs.
At the heart of this dilemma is the brutal fact that private firms—no matter how “green” will, in the end, be driven by the need to maximise profits for their owners as no doubt Vestas is doing.
It is this core fact that is missing from all the attempts by both the SNP government in Edinburgh and New Labour in London to tempt “entrepreneurs”to make fortunes from our natural resources.
Research will be taken by them and used to harness wind and tide not just to generate electricity but also super profits.
Just as with the privatisation of Scottish oil and gas we stand on the edge of seeing another energy jackpot being creamed off for profits by big business while consumers pay the bills.
Socialists must make the case for energy resources such as wind, wave, hydro, coal and oil to be in public hands and utilised to meet the needs of people not profit.
And alongside that we need to see government action to support the development of the engineering and design skills that will be needed to manufacture and maintain the turbines, windmills, wave generators and their control systems.
As the Vestas case shows, and as we have seen with a litany of footloose multinationals in engineering, computers, food and drink, such firms will only do such work if the price is right and if it isn’t they move elsewhere.
The development and manufacture of the equipment that will power the green jobs of the future is too important to be left to the profiteers but should be developed by public enterprise in which those who do the work have a major say in how it is done.
The collapse of the banking gamble is not a reason to rescue big business failure but to put firmly on the agenda the need to redevelop our skills base in manufacturing under the control of the public to meet human need and not to stuff the wallets of the fat cats.